About Me

Proud homeschooling mom of 3 so far, Irish cradle Catholic, 3rd generation Red Sox fan, bookworm, and fitness video collector. I'm a New England Yankee at heart but have spent 10 of the past dozen years out here in Cali.

Our Family

DH: mycollege sweetheart and now husband of twelve years.Miss Scarlet: our oldest DD, age 9. She is in 5th grade and loves reading, creative writing, science, computer programming, drawing, and baking.Rusty, our DS, almost 7.He is in 1st grade and loves reading, science, history, drama, and anything mechanical.Princess Persimmon, ouryounger DD, who is 3 and loves getting into *everything!* She has autism and is currently attending a special day class.

Amazon Recommends

Subscribe Now:

Who's Seen Me?

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

New Poll Demonstrates Parents Want School Choice

Only 11% of Nevada residents would send their children to traditional government-run schools if they were able to choose any educational option according to a new survey done by the Nevada Public Research Institute and the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. Nearly half (48%) would choose a private school, 23% would choose a government charter school, 15% would choose independent homeschooling, and 3% would choose a cyberschool.

NPRI Communications Director Andy Matthews said the poll results demonstrate that the state's government-run schools are not meeting people's needs:

"It is clear that Nevadans are doubtful of the effectiveness of our monolithic public education system and want more choice when it comes to how their children are educated."

The most common reason given in the poll for preferring an alternative to a traditional government-run school was academic quality (33%), followed by school curriculum (25%), extracurricular activities (13%), and safety/discipline (11%).

These results show just how far apart parents' desired educational options and their actual ones are. According to data from the 2006 American Community Survey, only 5% of Nevada's K-12 students attend private schools and fewer than 1% are homeschooled. The Heritage Foundation put the percent of students attending charter schools in 2005 at roughly 1.2%. So while nearly 9 in 10 Nevada residents would want their children educated somewhere other than a traditional government-run school, only roughly 1 in 13 are able to do so at the current time.

It's time to end the near-monopoly traditional government-run schools have over K-12 education in this country and allow *ALL* parents (not just wealthy ones) to choose the option they feel is best for their children.